The concept of the elusive "le je ne sais quoi" as a category of gallant aesthetics.

Zaótseva Nataliya Vladimirovna PhD in Art History Director General, "Voyager" LLC 194100, Russia, g. Saint Petersburg, ul. Kharchenko, 1, kv. 34 nvzaytseva@mail.ru Other publications by this author

          Since the middle of the last century, there have been disputes around the classicist doctrine, which blur the seemingly clear picture of the art of the XVII century and show that along with the aesthetics of classicism, the aesthetics of rules and order, there was another gallant aesthetics. Yu. Fukui was one of the first to raise the question of the validity of the use of the term "classicism", "the vague concepts of which are already being discussed more than a century", pointing out the contradictions in the views of classicism, the heterogeneity of this trend in matters of aesthetics. According to the author, there was a different literature, a different aesthetic at the same time as the classical one, which does not conflict with it, the peculiarity of which is the change of colors ^{[1, p. 190]}.

Formulating the basic principles of aesthetics of the XVII century, A. Adam argues that the aesthetics of order, regularity, strict grandeur was not at any point in this century the only and universally recognized doctrine. The main conclusion he makes is that the XVII century cannot be exhausted by classicism and there were two aesthetics, classical and gallant, and there was no contradiction between them ^{[2, p. 28]}.

A. Viala in the article "What is classics?" ^{[3, pp. 11-34]} writes that in Athens and Rome there was no literary and aesthetic doctrine as a single and "classicist". This was not the case in France either, unless one roughly manipulates the model in order to find unity in the works of different authors ^{[3, p. 22]}.

    In this dispute about classicism and aesthetic theories of the XVII century, the concept of the "elusive" is given a special place, since the category of the "elusive" excludes the rules and demonstrates the ambiguity and complexity of the art of this period. The concept of the "elusive" is at the heart of the eternal dilemma of the art of the XVII century, the choice between beauty and grace, rational and irrational. However, in modern research, with all the relevance of the theme of style and the style of the era, this aesthetic category is not given sufficient attention.

A member of the French Academy, the poet Jean-Odigier Gambo, on March 12, 1635, gives a speech dedicated to the "elusive", which has not reached us and is known only in the retelling ^{[4, p. 254]}. Jean -Odigier Gambo, a pupil of Malherbe, was a member of the circle of the hostess of the famous literary salon of the Marquise Rambouillet. The poet Vincent Voiture, who not only visited the salon of Rambouillet, but was also his soul, at the same time writes:

First of all, there is a certain grace

Something elusive, something unsurpassed

Coming from the most tender love

Laughter that cannot be described

The kind that others don't have

But which is visible and which cannot be transmitted ^{[5, p. 590]}.

The same thoughts are expressed by Pierre Corneille in "Medea", written in the same year 1635:

Often the elusive cannot be expressed

It surprises us, captures us and forces us to love

How often inexplicably objects ignite us

They amaze our eyes and capture our souls ^{[6, p. 353]}.

    The famous reformer of the French language, Claude Fauvre de Vaujla, in the "Remarks" published in 1647, arguing about what gallantry is, also refers to this category: "Some argue that it is something elusive and that it differs from the concept of grace, others believe that neither elusive nor grace is enough, concepts are absolutely natural, if it is not accompanied by a certain appearance, which is learned only at court and which is acquired only through frequent visits of noble persons and ladies. Still others believe that external manifestation is not enough and that the word "gallant" has a broader meaning, in which numerous qualities are combined together, that this word means something elusive, and grace, court gloss, intelligence, common sense, politeness, courtesy and gaiety. And all this is at ease, without posturing and without flaw" ^{[7, p. 477]}.

  Thus, we see that the concept of the "elusive" is widely discussed in the secular and literary environment in the 30 - 40s of the XVII century. This concept is becoming more and more established as the heroic ideal, to which it was not peculiar, is replaced by the gallant ideal. "The ancients imagined the graces to be very refined in order to make them understand that what they like consists of things almost imperceptible, as in a wink, as in a half-smile, and in the elusive, which escapes very easily and is not found by those who are looking for it.  It seems, in this case, that the heroic character is not created to be liked, at least the way it is presented," it sums up  Chevalier de Mer ^{[8, p. 76]}.

 The concept of the elusive follows from Descartes' dualism, the very duality that appears after he separates the disembodied rational soul and the body that lives according to mechanical laws. After that, it becomes clear that there is something else in man that does not obey mechanical laws and that does not fall under the passions of the soul - something elusive. Andre Felibien writes about this: "Something elusive that is on everyone's lips can be most accurately expressed as a secret knot that connects two parts - the body and the mind. This is similar to the result given by the magnificent symmetry of the members and the agreement of the movements. And since this connection is very fragile and hidden, it is impossible to see it or to know it in order to imagine or express it as we would like. [...] For the elusive is nothing but a fusion of the divine, which gives birth to beauty and grace ^{[9, p. 38]}.

  From the same position, the writer and moralist Dominique Buur looks at the nature of the elusive, who in one of the dialogues expresses the opinion that the elusive is something that comes from God ^{[4, p. 332]}. Dominique Buur draws a parallel between the elusive and desire, as a mechanism or, more precisely, an engine: "We see that it is good to perceive the object of most of our passions. In addition to love, hatred gives movement to all the emotions of the heart, desire and hope, which are the basis in a person's life. For, in the end, we always wish and hope, because there is always something that goes beyond the intentions offered to us, something elusive that we always strive for and never achieve, from which it follows that we are never satisfied in enjoying things that we desired with great fervor" ^{[4, p. 254]}. The elusive is the inclination and desire of the heart, "a very exquisite feeling of the soul that touches it," a feeling that cannot be known, but that comes from our most lively inclinations" ^{[4, p. 42]}.

  Otherwise, those who try to find a rationalistic explanation for the concept of the elusive, to justify its nature, consider the concept of the elusive. In one of the letters, Chevalier de Mer says that the concept of the "elusive" can be defined and formulated, but it is accessible to a select few: "in the way of thinking and even expressions, what is meant by the elusive consists of insignificant things that are not easy to define. And, nevertheless, it is not elusive for everyone. There are some who know the reasons and often where they come from" ^{[10, p. 567]}. This knowledge is available to the elect, to those who do not like to demonstrate it and understand it, rather with their hearts.

Kontiere compares the elusive with the fragrance, which consists of numerous smells and tries to formulate its nature. He recognizes that a person consists of three uncoordinated things: body, mind and heart.  The elusive is the most attractive of all feelings. You can feel it, but you cannot see it, it is so subtle and delicate that it escapes the most attentive eyes, so strong that no one can resist it. "It is a universal attraction that extends to everything and has no fixed location" ^{[11, p.45]}.

 A wide discussion of this concept in the salon environment leads to the fact that the principle of the "elusive" becomes a requirement and a sign of a gallant manner of behavior, which, according to Pelisson, is combined with external grace ^{[12, p. 47]}. So Jean Donno de Vise already makes extensive use of this concept in secular dialogues in a book published in 1663, talking about appearance, manners and love ^{[13, pp. 67, 120]}. This indicates the practical development of the theory of "the art of liking", based not only on rationalism, but on the empirical understanding that the same qualities are attractive in different ways for different people, that someone has a certain charm, charm that does not lend itself to an exact formulation: "What fascinates, then what delights in speech is a certain graceful turn that a thought makes, which often owes its brilliance to the manner in which it is expressed, which turns into nothing if it is expressed differently. A word put in its place is like a diamond inserted into a frame, or a pearl successfully inserted into a work of art" ^{[14, p. 152]}.

  Finally, Montesquieu, in The Experience of Taste, writes that the pleasures that the soul receives, including something elusive, which the soul, as the source of all this, receives from ourselves: "There is an invisible charm in people or objects, a natural charm that cannot be explained and which we are forced to call elusive. It seems to me that this effect is mainly based on surprise" ^{[15, p.154]}. At the same time, Montesquieu, feeling the contradictory views of his contemporaries, creates a theory paradoxical in essence, trying to combine the elusive and rules, beauty and grace, symmetry and diversity.

    Throughout the XVII century - the first half of the XVIII century, in all discussions and disputes, two points of view on the nature of the "elusive" are affirmed - the rationalistic one, according to which, even if we do not know the laws and nature of the elusive, it does not mean that they do not exist and the mystical one, which elevated this concept to something supernatural, divine.

Elusive charm, charm become the highest quality of a secular person, they are given by nature, or acquired in society through studies and efforts. It is possible to acquire this quality only in a secular environment, in communication with women and, more importantly, by loving them or wanting to please them. Madeleine Scuderi in the novel "Artamon or the Great Cyrus" through the mouth of her heroine states: "The elusive," Sappho continued, "is born from a hundred different things. For I am also convinced that it is necessary for nature to invest at least in the consciousness of people who should have gallant manners, a certain predisposition to receive them. Plus, you need secular communication in court society, which will help you acquire it, you also need a conversation with women, which gives this quality to men" ^{[16, p. 7097]} and further: "In order to acquire this quality [elusive - N.Z.], you need to fall in love or have a desire to be liked"^{[16, p. 7099]}. In a word, social communication, salons, pastes, assemblies, the desire to please the participants of social communication are the motivation for acquiring this quality. Which is quite possible, according to one of the first theorists of the art of dance, Michel de Pura, who writes: "There are some people who have something more, something elusive, more visible than explicable [...] I think this is a natural grace, but a little training and diligence can add something that is not given by nature"^{[17, p. 290]}.

          From the sphere of social communication and dance, the aesthetic category of the "elusive" is transferred to the sphere of art and becomes one of the main criteria in the evaluation of works of art. The purpose of a work of art is to fascinate, to please, regardless of what it depicts, because the image is just a reflection of ideas and thoughts: "Storms, bloody battles, ferocious beasts, fascinate in the picture instead of terrifying, if they are well presented, well written. For according to the doctrine of Aristotle, what is beautifully reproduced is beautiful, even if it is something terrible. The pleasure that we get when we see a beautiful reproduction comes not from the object, but from the reflections that came to mind, which have nothing similar to the image: from the main thing that is perceived in this meeting, when something elusive, new is perceived, what touches and what to like," the writer proclaims and the moralist Dominique Buur ^{[18, p. 208]}.        Many authors, speaking about contemporary art, understand that the "elusive" is rather its essence. "Elegant plays in prose and in verse have something elusive, smooth, which is their whole essence, enclosed in this secular form, in this exquisite color," writes Dominique Buur ^{[4, p. 321]}. To a greater extent, this is characteristic of poetry, so, according to Menestrie, among all kinds of art, "poetry has something elusive, something that pleases and attracts, a special grace that has earned divine glory among all peoples" ^{[19, p. 79]}.        

It is not strict laws that determine the art and fashion of this time, but that elusive thing that attracts and pleases, which is their essence and without which the great creation turns into a cold idol. Absolute beauty is inhuman, but if beauty has a small flaw, it becomes charming. Arguing about the "elusive", analyzing works of art, many authors resort to the concept of "grace" as a complement or antithesis of "beauty". Beauty is created according to the laws, it is regular, static and absolute. Grace is devoid of law, it is elusive, inexplicable and changeable. 

We see the constant juxtaposition of cold beauty and lively grace in La Fontaine's "The Love of Psyche and Cupid", in which he utters his famous phrase: "and grace is more beautiful than beauty." Contemporaries pick up this saying, trying to describe the subtle grace, charm inherent in people. For example, the Marquis of Choisy uses this phrase when describing Louise de la Valliere ^{[20, p. 149]}.

External grace is a reflection of inner beauty and this view is expressed not only by moralists and poets, but also by people of science. The doctor Nicolas Vanet writes about grace as proportionality, the right relationship of soul and body: "Beautiful grace is extremely important in beauty, it is transmitted through behavior, movement of the body, mainly the face and eyes, which are intermediaries of the soul. Often it is only this beautiful grace that makes up most of the beauty and makes us love. But beauty is not perfect if the soul has no attractiveness and if the beauty does not own her passions"^{[21, p. 316]}.

Nicolas Venetti, analyzing gender relations, notes that unlike beauty, which is immediately liked, there is still an elusive charm, a certain courtesy and courtesy inherent in a woman affects more slowly, but more reliably: "Charm acts differently than perfect beauty. Its influence is slower and its attractiveness does not capture us with such speed and haste. […]   Beauty, being a fleeting phenomenon, cannot always be liked. At the same time, as a charm, the quality of a constant always increases with aging" ^{[21, p. 325]}.

From a different position, the Chevalier de Mer argues about beauty and grace, who claims that it is the same thing, but under different names: "If this beautiful quality shows itself with a lot of brilliance and it is very obvious, it is called beauty; when it is a little foggy and you open it with difficulty, it is given the name of grace and charm"^{[22, p. 286]}. Thus, he correlates beauty with splendor and luxury, and grace passes into the category of something not obvious, refined, elusive. However, it is grace that attracts and fascinates: "For beauty, in which there is no grace, is not created in order to love it, and things that are liked without being beautiful are more refined than those that are beautiful without attractiveness" ^{[8, p. 62]}. Chevalier de Mer divides writers into those who instinctively look for what the public should like in each plot and those who create works of art according to rules, which, however, should not be denied either ^{[8, p. 62]}. According to Dominique Vuur, "in the books of Guez de Balzac, beauty and regularity attract, which I really like, but I must admit that the works of Voiture, which have this secret charm, subtle grace, veiled elusive, like much more" ^{[4, p. 329]}.

 Art historian, historiographer of Louis XIV  Andre Felibien in "Conversations about life and the most wonderful creations" also talks about the most important aesthetic principles in the evaluation of works of art: the elusive, beauty and grace ^[23]. According to Felibien, beauty is born from the proportions and symmetry that exist between the bodily and material parts, and grace is born from the uniformity of internal movements caused by the affections and feelings of the soul. In his opinion, in art rules, observance of proportions does not mean anything. There is something that is above beauty - "grace, which is achieved without rules by the genius of the artist and which cannot be learned. Grace is a rare gift that makes you fall in love with a work of art. Grace is manifested in the movement of the soul and the movement of the mind. You see a beautiful woman, but you can't judge her grace until she starts talking or laughing. An artist, a sculptor and an architect do not create a simple form, but strive to breathe life into it. Architecture is beautiful in proportions, but only the movement of the architect's mind gives it grace"^{[23, p. 35]}.

 According to Andre Marechal, grace is inherent in modern art and the modern French language. In the preface to the novel "Chrysolite" Andre Marechal explains his attitude to the ancient heritage. In an effort to "bring antiquity down to us," the author took an antique plot and "adapted Greek antiquity to things from our century, giving them the grace of our word"^{[24, p. 78]}. That is, grace is inherent in the new time and new literature.

Architect Francois Blondel gives a different explanation, combining the elusive, grace and beauty, which consists in the harmony of proportions. To create a beautiful structure, "three things are needed. Know the number of parts, what is called finishing and their combination or arrangement. The combination of them creates something elusive that flashes magnificently in the form of beauty [...] and which we call harmony, symmetry, grace, pleasantness and conformity. It gives pleasure, because we naturally love beautiful things" ^{[25, p. 751]}. In understanding beauty, he is close to Neoplatonism and Cartesian rationalism, proclaiming measure, balance and harmony as the basis of beauty. However, even for such a supporter of the rules as Blondel, antiquity is only the highest argument in substantiating new ideas, and not in affirming something unchangeable and old. What is extracted from antiquity corresponds to a new aesthetics and a new philosophy. This line, but without theoretical disputes, is practically continued by his students Augustin Charles d'aville in his "Course of Architecture"^[26] and Pierre Boulle, whose book is called "Practical Architecture"^[27]. In the XVIII century, the architect and theorist Charles Etienne Brizo joined this dispute on the side of Blondel ^{[28, p. 6]}.

 Unlike Blondel, Claude Perrault (1613-1688) is already fully on the positions of gallant aesthetics in his arguments about beauty and grace in architecture: "The beauty of a building has in common with the human body. It consists not in the accuracy of proportions, nor in the ratio of the magnitude of one to the other, but in the grace of forms, which is nothing but a modification, on which absolute and perfect beauty can only be based"^{[29, p. j]}. What one likes does not depend on proportions, since a human face with the same proportions can be beautiful and ugly: "In architecture, creations with different proportions can have grace to deserve the approval equally of those who know how to think and have good taste in architecture"^{[29, p. i]}. According to Perrault, the details are as important as the whole. Without them, the building loses most of its grace and elegance. Claude Perrault emphasizes the elusiveness and transience of what he likes. He calls a habit, a tradition, an established taste what he likes today and may disappear tomorrow. Claude Perrault and his brother Charles Perrault^{[29, p. 39]} demonstrate the already established gallant aesthetics. They draw the heyday of art and architecture in France, drawing a parallel between the Emperor Augustus and Louis XIV, one great century and another. Claude Perrault is not against antiquity, and not even against blind worship of it, but from the position of a modern person, from the position of a new gallant aesthetics, he opposes what is alien to her - static, scholastic approach, dead rules.

The architect and theorist Michel de Fremen, about whom we only know that his creative years fall around 1665-1704 in the "Critical Notes on Architecture"^[31] and Jean Louis de Cordemois in the "New Treatise on Architecture" ^[32] continue the line of Claude Perrault. Michel de Fremen declares that the most important thing in architecture is "a simple and natural grace that does not contradict decency and does not oppose reason. On the contrary, simplicity is the only decoration"^{[31, p.52]}. If beauty is in proportions, then grace is in something elegant: "I distinguish grace and beauty in a building. Beauty is a combination of many things: wealth, splendor and stunning views. Grace is the distribution and wise agreement of all these things. That is, beauty is not without grace. Like a lady's rich clothes, diamonds and expensive fabrics give her splendor, but not grace. Simplicity, combined with conventional and reasonable decoration, creates grace"^{[31, p. 60]}.

     The gallant model is based on the Renaissance foundation and the ancient ideas of beauty as a ratio of size, rhythm, proportions, as well as the established rules of beauty remain at the center of discussions about art and are the criterion of evaluation. At the same time, the new thing that comes with gallant aesthetics, with the "art of liking", brings with it new aesthetic categories - the concepts of "elusive" and "grace", since the main goal of any work of art is the desire to please and charm. "I'm surprised that some people don't see the difference between beauty and charm. These are completely different things. You can admire what is beautiful, but what is charming makes you love yourself... Charm is preferable to beauty," sums up Kontiere in the book about the art of liking ^{[33, p. 55]}.

 As we can see, the arguments about the elusive and the resulting ideas about beauty and grace show contradictory judgments of art historians, moralists, architects of the XVII and the first half of the XVIII century. They blur the ideal theory of classicism and the traditional perception of the XVII century as the century of the rule of strict rules, demonstrating a complex picture of ideas and aesthetic preferences.